November 29, 2006

Unusual deaths

Posted by Arcane Gazebo at November 29, 2006 12:57 PM

While poking around on Wikipedia I found their interesting and macabre list of unusual deaths. Apparently ironic deaths were big in the 20th century, whereas the 19th century is characterized by deaths from trivial accidents. The latest trend seems to be getting killed by bears, which suggests that Stephen Colbert may be on to something. Alexander Litvinenko is the most recent entry.

You know that schoolyard expression, "Smooth move ex-lax, what are you gonna do for your next trick, gargle peanut butter?" I actually tried once. It was bad -- I got a big slimy lump lodged in there good, and was just barely able to cough it out.

The 19th century seems far too U.S.-centric. Surely there were plenty of Europeans dying in interesting ways? I also find it interesting that Macaca's dad is on the list. Do football teams still do the gatorade-over-the-coach's-head routine these days?

I knew about the molten gold execution, just didn't know it had been done twice...

Interesting list. This reminds me of two lab near-accidents that happened recently here:

One involves a Ph.D. biologist who filled a large liquid nitrogen dewar in a small, unventilated room. He staggered out of the room and asked the other people in his lab, "Is nitrogen toxic?"

Another is from a safety warning that was circulated here by our environmental health & safety department warning people not to leave dry ice in coldrooms. Apparently, someone left a sizeable chunk of dry ice in his lab's coldroom. The next morning, a co-worker walked into the coldroom and promptly fainted from lack of oxygen. Fortunately, someone in his lab saw this happen and caught him before he hit the ground. He was fine after some ventilation.

Yukio Mishima needs a mention. At least, committing seppuku on the balcony of the Japan Defense Force base you've taken over by force with your personal army in a failed attempt to try and reinvigorate Japan's once-feared imperial army sure does seem unusual.